I find it quite ironic that McLaren's mess up's led to Kimi losing the world title in 2003 and '05, but allowed Kimi to win in '07. I have nothing against Hamilton and he drove 2007 brilliantly, but I'm so grateful their mishaps happened so we can get to call the iceman world champion.
He deserved the 07 title anyway mate Kimi had 2 DNFs in Spain and Nurburgring through no fault of his own. He also competed in Monza after suffering a horrible crash in FP3 which affected his neck badly. Hamilton may have driven brilliantly for a rookie but he had an open goal for winning the title. His two main rivals Kimi and Alonso joined new teams whilst having to adapt to Bridgestone tyres (both previously used Micheins only) Lewis had been using the simulator since 2004 plus he'd also driven with Bridgestone tyres from his GP2 days. He was an extremely prepared rookie and lost the title in the end because he beached his car in the gravel entering the pit lane. A shocking mistake considering this was someone aiming for a title
I've never looked it up properly but what exactly did happen to Hamilton in that last race? It was something with the gearbox but it somehow fixed itself? very bizarre thing... coming into it I was sure he'd do enough
@@george._mav Yeah I agree. Kimi was the best driver that year overall. Alonso in Fuji and the Hungaroring and Hamilton in Shanghai made costly mistakes that cost them the title. It was truly an extrodinary season against 3 of the greatest of all time in very evenly matched machinery. The Bridgestone tyres Hamilton used in GP2 had no grooves, whilst the ones in F1 did, so I think it's fair to say that Hamilton had to do an equal amount of adapting that Alonso and Raikkonen did with their tyres. Hamilton was indeed a very well prepared rookie, but he put up a worthy fight to two incredible drivers for someone so young and not used to being so famous. Thankfully, he did win in 2008, but Massa losing the title on the final corner just hurts so much, especially considering where both of their careers went afterwards.
This is a criminally underrated channel. This guys depth of knowledge, dry wit and flawless delivery merits a substantial following. At least I was here before he made it big! Keep up the amazing work. When your videos drop I stop whatever I'm doing and give my full attention, they're that good!
Kimi was the fastest, Clean racer I've ever seen in any category of motorsport. It's a cut throat sport which is brutal at the limit, but he always found a way to allow room even to his worst competition without fail. I believe this made him one of, if not the best wheel to wheel racers ever and his creativity in overtaking unmatched -how often did we hear "oh no-one ever has overtaken there before". How many onboards do we see of him mm apart of the next car without sliding or banging wheels or body work- so effortless, whereas with other drivers even so called greats they're banging wheels driving each other off - they're huffing and puffing like they're in MMA. With Kimi its an artform of speed. The thing most forgotten by people is that during those Mclaren years he pulled ridiculously quick qualifying and lap times often with 10-30kgmore fuel than his rivals. Had the cars only failed half as much as they did, he would easily have been a double wc by 2005 & most likely stayed at Mclaren where I'm certain he would have won a few more.
Absolutely correct. Prime Raikkonen had the talent to properly dominate F1 there is no doubt in my mind The sheer amount of times he’s had to properly race his way though the field, start the back, and he would return with a podium if the car didn’t fail him. Probably had the most overtakes in that time, but was rarely involved in incidents In fact, look at his mistakes across 4 years, you don’t really see him hitting other cars or making mindless moves. Monaco 2008 was his first penalty-worthy mistake in SEVEN years. That’s incredible when you think about it His qualifying times on higher fuel were insane, Monza 2005 is a such a great example. No finer example than the teammate battle, we all know how fast and talented Montoya is and he crushed him
The GOAT. His driving technique makes him the best ever. The most extreme oversteer driver of all time. Hes also one of the most complete drivers ever to be seen -fastest ever at his peak (top 3 best ever over 1 lap and the best ever in races) -best wheel to wheel racer (extremely clean and fair) -best driver ever at car setup -elite defensive driver -elite overtaker -elite car control -wet weather specialist -world class at tyre management -world class at race starts -world class at car development The only driver to win races with V10, V8 and V6 engines Also the only driver to win a championship whilst joining a new team and having to adapt to new tyres that hed never driven before. A year that had huge regulation changes.
I wouldn't say he is the GOAT (personally I would give that to either Jim Clark or Fernando Alonso), but along with Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso, he was one of the defining drivers of his era. He is the most underrated one I think. A lot of people overlook the years before his championship. Whilst he did perform some outsanding races after the championship, such as Spa '09, Abu Dhabi '12, Australia and Singapore '13 and of course, his legendary win in Texas in '18, it was prior the championship win where we managed to see Kimi's full potential. Also, Senna also won with a V6, V8 and V10 (in addition to a V12).
@@MatOnMotorsNot much point in doing any comparisons beyond his Singapore 2013 injury. Even with surgeries, those always put a nasty asterisk on any career.
It does feel like Kimi deserved more in his time with McLaren since we got to see some of his best drives during this time but bad luck just seemed to follow him all the time while McLaren and Mercedes took too many gambles with their car which led to that shocking statistic of a 45% chance of Kimi's race ending early. Regardless, when he was good, he was really good and was definitely a match for Alonso and Schumacher during this time so while I do remember Kimi for being such a fun personality and a meme in his later career, a drive like Japan 2005 is probably what Kimi deserves to be remembered as well as his championship in 2007. I was fortunate enough to see Kimi get his only championship in 2007 since I do remember watching the Brazilian GP on TV and that proved to be one of my first memories of watching F1 too so Kimi is pretty important to me because of that. I am looking forward to the rest of the current F1 season especially with McLaren and Williams making some big improvements with their cars with Albon probably being one of the most feel good stories of this season and I am excited to see what he can do in Belgium and Italy with that Williams.
Would’ve been so good to see a Schumacher-Alonso-Raikkonen duel for the title! I’ve got all my fingers crossed for more good results for Williams. Albon is doing so well, and I’m hoping Sargeant continues to find his feet (although I wouldn’t be mad if Schumacher came in)
@@TheMobileChicane If those three had a title fight as close as 2021, that would be one of the best seasons in F1 history. Albon is one of my favourites this season so I hope he continues to do well and we will see if Sargeant is able to continue developing.
Another absolutely brilliant video. Thank you! :) As a McLaren fan myself, who started watching the F1 in the middle of 2000 and saw all these years of Kimi at McLaren live, it was truly a painful time back in the day.^^
The MP420 wins the prize for the most appropriate alphanumerical name of a F1 car. To quote Sim Dane - "All my cars have got that gas and they always be smokin' like a Rasta"
Over the years, Pat Symonds has repeatedly talked about Renault purposefully tuning down the power on their engines to satisfy for the 2005 rules. This at least helped to make their car more reliable. I wonder how 2005 looks if Mclaren had been a bit more conservative with their car. Might not have been as fast, but might have finished more races.
Another good point I should’ve covered; 2005 being the beginning of the era of stretching engine life. Given Mercedes’ struggles lasting just one race weekend, reliability across multiple was a big ask for them. Again, that what-if over conservation circles back to falling behind, and being unable to do so, playing catch up.
@@TheMobileChicane By the way, I'm a big fan of your channel. Your historical F1 content is second to none, keep it up :) You always tackle historical topics in F1 that I'm always thinking about and the topic of the Mclaren's early to mid 2000's form is criminally not discussed about enough. And don't get me started on the Prost GP video :D
This will cheer you up. I get to visit the paddock at silverstone on a test day as mclarens guest. A friend of the family worked in marketing so we got to do a budget version of the coporate expereince tyoe thing. Bought a shirt, had a go in a simulator etc. But the chance arises to maybe get an autograph on my shirt. So kimi starts walking from pit to paddock, so i make a beeline amd basically get to him first. Little do i know he never signs anything and becaus of this , all the pro autograph hunters just swamp him. Ive got two choices at this point, end up humping kimi as the press of anoraks waving stuff , like a good 10-12 of these guys are all pushing me into him. Most if them are his size so im this six foot lump being pushed into him amd he aint happy. So i forget my autograph , brace myself and and push back and instinctively spread my arms to stop them crowding kimi who looked like he wanted to stick one of the pens they are waving in their eyes. He looked up at me slightly puzzled, but then uses the breather to plan his escape with his impromptu security usher, ive worked nightclubs , i know this game... Weve had jonny vegas and edwin starr on stage before! So he signed two autographs very quickly and shot into his tent, A minute later his head pops out the side of the tent and says "hey you" signs my shirt amd says "thank you". And hes back in the tent before i could even say thanks back. Made my day. A proper gent...
Raikkonen’s McLaren career is one of the most misleading and frankly unfair things in F1 history Across 5 seasons his only mistakes (which he was seriously punished for) were mistakes on qualifying runs, bad starts, and lock ups? He even had to run in the one shot qualifying era, he would have never started that far back in later seasons as he would have had multiple laps
I was getting into F1 in 2003, saw Kimi racing and instantly fell in love. Was heartbroken after Suzuka but sure that in 2004 he would deliver. Just to see his car blowing up like every other race
I'd guess it was Newey pushing packaging (and cooling) to the limit which exacerbated Mercedes' engine issues through this period. One of his failures people rarely talk about (case in point: lots of footage of Ron and Norbert in the analysis but next to none of the man responsible for designing the car).
It's jaw-dropping how much effort and research you put into this video. It seems to me you watched every single race during his McLaren days because you summarised them perfectly. You also approach the matter objectively and make sure to highlight the mistakes that Kimi did during his title challenges. Usually people blame McLaren and their reliability woes for their failure to win titles which still stands more than true but conveniently leave out Kimi's mishaps too. Argh.. it's such a huge what if. If things had gone right my favourite driver would be triple maybe even quadruple world champion.
You can't really compare his mistake with the crazy amount of DNFs McLaren had. McLaren let Kimi down massively. They had the fastest driver, and they wasted that chance. Kimi didn't need an MP4/20 to win or fight for the title, as 2003 proved.
@@ciaronsmith4995 Don't worry, that's what I meant mate. Just a little fortuna. One little mistake here or one less crash there. Kimi would be a multiple world champion IN SPITE of the massive failures of McLaren.
Love how the MP4-18 (if I'm not mistaken) has so many ideas that went on to the Red Bulls and the front wing resembles some of the ones the teams we have now.
Kimi started karting at 10 years old. He only competed in 23 races in Formula Ford and Formula Renault when he entered F1. He was relatively far less experience than others like Alonso and Button. 2003 saw Schumacher damage his bargeboards in 🇦🇺, collide with Trulli at 🇲🇾 and crash in 🇧🇷. Frankly, Kimi didn’t need to drive too aggressively because Schumi and Montoya were highly inconsistent despite the latter two having higher peaks (excluding Kimi's drives at 🇲🇾 and 🇪🇺). And MP4/17D was limited by hitting the end of its development cycle. Frankly, even though I was 12, I was astonished by his efforts in 03 when you consider he'd never won a race prior and he was a 3rd year driver. 2004 MP4/19 was a remodified MP4/18. A miserable season with 🇧🇪 his only highlight. 2005 was the ultimate robbery. Kimi was amazing and deserved to be world champion. He was the fastest and the best on the grid. He totally destroyed Montoya easily. 2006 was nearly 2004 all over again.
I have watched the Problems with Prost video at least 4 times, would love more content you are really good at what you do, especially with the old content i am very much a nostalgic person and the early 2000's were my childhood, hoping for more of this in the future :)
With how much of a shitbox the MP4-18 was, development on that car should have been canned earlier so more resources could be pooled into the 17D. Granted; the performance ceiling of the 17D might've been relatively low but it had the opportunity to still be a title contender thanks to the weather conditions favouring McLaren's Michelins and the F2003-GA being particularly heavy on its front tyres, compounding the weaknesses of the Bridgestones in the European leg of the season.
and here we are... the end of 2023 and Kimi is still the latest Ferrari champion! It's been 16 years since they had a champion! His bad luck was indeed like a man smashing a mirror with a black cat whilst walking under a ladder... I'm still a fan of Kimi (even tho he's not in F1 anymore) and I have been a fan of him since 2003
Can't tell you how exciting it is to see a fresh, chunky video essay uploaded to your channel ready to be enjoyed. Thank you for putting so much effort into your content!!
I was a huge Hamilton fanboy in the early stages of his career, so I’ve only recently began to appreciate Brazil 2007 (and indeed the end part of ‘07) for the turnaround of Ferrari and Raikkonen (and implosion of McLaren)
Well, I guess I'm early to this. Anyhow, I'm a huge fan of your channel as all of your vids are really well written, Your channel is one of those I really reccomended to my friends who watch Formula 1. So yea. Your vid made my day. Thanks!!!!!
@kirisaki.777 you sure about that? Driver61 mentioned kimi in a recent upload and he didn't exactly do a great job by putting him in the understeer camp 💀
Agreed. I think if we judged Raikkonen purely on his McLaren era, i think we’d be ranking him in the top 5/10 drivers of all time. Some of those qualifying performances were brilliant.
@TheMobileChicane indeed but his race pace was even more impressive At his peak I would still rank him a tad below Senna and Hakkinen in terms of quali speed. However in the races - he's the fastest ever for me
Thank you for the video, many memories brought back. This was the era for me, screaming V10s, slick West McLaren livery and Kimi were what'd brought me to the sport, and I'm a bit sad F1 will never be like that again. Edit: One big "what could have been" was also Kimi's near signing of the contract with McLaren for 2010. There's generally a lack of information and it seems that Kimi wanted more than McLaren were inclined to pay, but it'd be interesting to know more about the background. Kimi with Hamilton in 2010 - 2012 era, that could have been quite a sight.
Thank you! I’d forgotten that; before Button had signed, there was a lot of chat that maybe Kimi could come back. I think he was also linked to a return there much later on - quite possibly when Alonso left for the second time
It took the greatest dynasty in all of motorsports, the greatest engineer F1 has ever had, the most successful team principal in history, the most legendary driver pairing and greatest single driver in F1 history, a strategy team who played the rulebook like a fiddle, essentially made-to-order tires specifically tailored to their car, and a technicality in the rules, to beat prime-Räikkönen in the car from the prior season that broke down every second race because Adrian Newey somehow kept forgetting how temperature works. It took all of this to beat prime-Räikkönen by just two points. If he had somehow dragged that disfunctional washing machine to win the WDC, it would have been probably the greatest season performance in motorsports, arguably sports as a whole. Unfortunately he didn't. Even tho the main problem was the team surrounding him, greatness is defined by overcoming the shortcomings you have to deal with, and he made mistakes that cost him this achievement. But the 2007 WDC was beyond deserved, especially since he dragged Ferrari who were kicking and screaming to a WDC past a McLaren Team that had much better pace. And 2004 was never an option for any team to win. Formula Ferrari just let Formula 1 drive during their race. I'm a Schumacher & Ferrari fan btw.
It's always a joy seeing one of your uploads go live. I've said it before, but your ability to tell thoughtful stories makes for a gripping watch even when I already know just about everything about that era. Keep at it, man. I miss Kimi. I said it in a reply to another comment as well, but his wheel to wheel skills made battles involving him a joy to watch. I thought I'd disagree more with your assessment of 2003, but you bring a level of nuance and levelheadedness to the table that I'm honestly not used to from the F1 community, especially these days. All the more reason to appreciate your videos.
I feel like when I was a child, & Kimi was my favourite driver, he led every Race in Verstappenesque dominance only to hve his engine blow up eventually. With modern cars that hardly ever break down, Kimi would have 4 titles. McLareb Kimi was one of the fastest drivers ever. That man was easily better than Prime Vettel or Prost, who both have multiple titles.
Kimi definitely deserved 2003 and 2005. In 03 he was the most consistent driver in a lesser car to the Ferrari and Williams apart from the first three races. He had a few errors here and there but none of the high profile mistakes ie Montoya and Schumacher both crashing out at interlagos and having their share of mistakes throughout the year. He was playing defence all year long in the 3rd fastest car. 05 without a doubt should of been his if not for reliability. 2007 however he definitely didn’t deserve as both Mclarens out drove him that year and he was a shadow of his McLaren self once he moved over to Ferrari. He was lucky that year that the Mclarens kept taking points off each other.
It confuses me why the popular f1 channels are the ones that rank liveries and drivers every race to fill an upload quote while proper channels like these run under the radar. F1’s rich history for me has always been a beacon of light in times of such monotony.
This video makes you understand how much reliability mattered back then even above having the outright fastest car. Schumacher and Ferrari had reliability as a top priority in their first years together and hearing that Kimi had that much trouble makes you wonder how much more would he have achieved in a Ferrari between 2003-06
Wow really great video man, always a fan of longform F1 content. Giving context to every retirement like that really put it in perspective for a younger F1 fan like me how absolutely trashed his champion hopes were, over and over. I was a toddler when he was driving the McLaren, but now I am the age he was back then.
Honestly listening to the problems Raikkonen ran into in his time at McLaren is nothing short of ridiculous What is that, like 35 of them in 5 seasons? Even stuff that wasn’t DNFs, the grid penalties, the stalls, the random glitches, the punctures Hammer any driver, even Schumacher, with that much misfortune and they’d never win a title
His motivation was never the issue. He barely made any mistakes either. It was purely the teams fault - he was the victim of incompetence despite being F1s fastest driver
Honestly the least amount of mistakes you’ll ever see from someone that had to drive a volatile car in an unstable era and constantly in the midfield and at the back, racing his forward
But in 2005 he not only had the best car, but he also made more mistakes than fernando, australia, europe, italy, alonso only had one error all season in canada, so give fernando some credit
Nonsense, Kimi had to start 10 places back in Monza, and Alonso made countless mistakes in Hungary, Canada, Nurburgring and lost a win at Silverstone. Enough. Raikkonen was F1's fastest drivers.@@zinddy
I remember 2003 as the season developed, news were coming in about the MP4-18. The car looked different, looked fast... I had such high hopes. Then the car didn't make it to the races and somehow Kimi battled Schumi in that outdated car. Let's say 2003 was a long shot. 2004... started like McLaren didn't learn anything from the MP4-18...I was so disappointed. 2005 - THANK YOU for summarizing the points table. I didn't take the time to do the math, but man... 12 wins and 170+ points. That was the real picture of that year. At that time I was looking into every detail of the sport. So I was very happy and somehow vindicated when Kimi won "Drive of the year - Monaco win" and "Driver of the year". This for the 2nd placed driver. Quite a recognition of the reality. The rest is just... Kimi was never the same after Spain 2008. Maybe due to Ferrari car changes that year, but certainly due to regulation changes starting with 2009. And the most underrated change through the years were the tires. After Michelin, Kimi just lost that speed that he had during qualifications.
In 2009 Kimi outqualified Massa and scored the most points along with Lewis in 2nd half. Ferrari engineers are baffled how he can put the car higher than expected.
Kimi is my favourite driver of all time and those McLaren years were nothing but heartbreak. I went into every race thinking 'Which lap will his McLaren fail him this time'
Another informative and great video. I feel like most Driver/Team pairing you mentioned that could get covered just sort of follow the same path of driver underperformed or was unhappy so the team sacked them or the driver left. I feel Jean Alesi's Ferrari woes and in general how he wound up from the next Prost to a French Trulli would be interesting to see covered . Also Ferrari politics are always fun to listen too and I am kind of surprised there's not a single video about at least 1 Ferrari bollocking story. I guess it's low hanging fruit lmao. Also rather than Irvine, I think it would be more interesting to cover Jaguar as a team itself, from them buying the team from Stewart to them selling it to Red Bull. Keep up the good work. You're probably the best F1 Channel on youtube personally.
I’ve made a video in every DNF he had at Mclaren during the race and in quali/FP. It’s tragic beyond words. This man was robbed of 2 titles in 2003 and 2005 and it’s depressing to upload the video.
A mistake in qualifying and speeding in the pit lane in Australia, a mistake letting through Fisi in Brazil, a mistake in qualifying and crash at the start in Spain, a mistake in qualifying in Canada, a mistake at Silverstone letting through Juan, a nowhere race at Monza in 2003 don’t count?
He didn’t make a mistake in Australia, that was a pit lane speed limiter glitch. Brazil was the craziest race ever Canada was inconsequential, he got a puncture in the race Silverstone he outperformed the car, it shouldn’t have even been on the podium. He dragged a 1 year old car, made far less mistakes than Juan or Michael that season who had far superior equipment. He is simply sensational. Without the failure at Nurburgring he easily wins 2003. Mclaren never launched their real car so he had to drive on the limit like a maniac every lap.
@deadmarch101 OK fair I'll concede the spain quali lap, he messed up there and probably wouldn't have gone into the back of a driver on lap 1 - although he couldn't actually do anything to avoid pizzonia at the time. He missed out on perhaps a few pts that weekend Other than that you literally just cherry picked all his other bad moments with no context behind it. You even got your facts wrong asw plus saying he was nowhere in monza shows a high level of ignorance and most likely a lack of knowledge about f1
Great video, I got into f1 from the usa in 03 / 04 and love seeing videos of f1 during that time..f1 had a different feel then....great memories...crazy how time flies
I know it's something you just brushed in the video, but I really do agree with your estimation that the 2005 US GP pretty much stopped any forward momentum of F1 in the US for a decade plus. It also kind of lays into my idea that even *if* both parties were keen to host it again, neither F1 nor Indianapolis want to have another 2005 hanging above their heads considering how different Indy is to the typical F1 tire in comparison to most F1 circuits, and I doubt Pirelli wants to put in the time and development into making it right for Indy, so both F1 and Indianapolis just decide to avoid one another. Then again, it ultimately doesn't matter - F1 got their effective American crown jewel in COTA, and Indy, even during the late years of the split in Tony George's reign, especially now under Penske, already has enough events alongside the Indy 500 to not necessarily need an F1 date, and risk destroying even more of what makes the Indy 500, and the Brickyard in general, the mystical temple it is.
The amount of Perkeles my dad and I would shout at the TV for Kimi's entire McLaren run, that smoke trail kept up with him better than DC ever did. The endless litany of consistent failures in car development solidified Ron Dennis as a past-his-prime class-A clown in my young eyes.
phenomenal video as usual. something i will come back to watch over and over again. thank you. every single video you make is a blessing that i am grateful for. i am very much looking forward to your podcast series that is in the concept phase. if i wasn’t a broke college student, i’d be sending you buckets of money for content creation. thank you so much. please keep up the good work!!! i would like to note that i am severely hung over at the moment but your videos matter so much to me that i am driven to watch them on release.
Your dedication to each and every video you create is astonishing, it feels like im watching a big production documentary. your work deserves so much more recognition!!
Love this video. Imo, I think Raikonnen was actually one of the best drivers of his time. I think this is a fair analysis of it all, but even so, when you just sit and study his on boards, he was just incredible. Just completely natural. He reminds of a guy I grew up with. Just completely normal. Some of these guys spend every waking hour to be good, eg Schumacher, Prost, etc. But Kimi was just the best from day one. I truly believe that if luck went his way and he got those championships, and if he was a bit more media friendly to the snow flakes of today, he’d seriously be considered as number one or two all time F1 driver, no doubt in my mind.
Mate if he was given a reliably fast car or dare I say a DOMINANT car like some more fortunate champions, man literally would have racked up 5 or 6 titles Man was one of the top 3 on the grid every season from 2003-2009
I cried when my favourite Raikkonen lost in 2003 and what it seemed to be his downfall in 2004. I was a huge Raikkonen supporter, but I also liked Schumacher. It was the best years to be introduced to F1. But I wish Raikkonen won 2003,
Another masterpiece. This channel reminds me of Alain De Cadenet's shows on the history of F1. Every race Sunday should start with an episode from Mobile Chicane.
Banning beryllium alloys caused Mercedes all sorts of problems with power and reliability. How on earth they then produced the most reliable engine on the grid once Kimi departed will wind me up forever
This exactly the banning basically hamstrung McLaren for the rest of the V10s era from 2001 when teams were making more power than ever IIRC Mercedes ended up back at 1998/99 power levels and had to work their way back up compromising reliability The next time they finally got it sorted was 2007 after starting 2006 with a weak engine as well
Thank you for the video, amazing work and the best in-detail-Kimi-McLaren video I have seen. Massive contribution for the whole F1 culture and community. I had never realized 2006 was also such a year of missed opportunities. I remember 2003 and 2005 much more clearly even though I was already 10 years old in 2006 and a huge Kimi fan. Maybe it is because it was "over" already in the beginning of the season, so additional miseries did not feel as bad in comparison and they are not living in my head so vividly.
Likewise, 03 and 05 are the obvious ones that stick out for a lot of people, 06 really slips under the radar since, like you said, it was seen as the beginning of the end for Raikkonen’s time at McLaren
@@JaredAlwaysWatches If we talk about talent, Mobile deserves a million subs now and millions of views, time will reward him, I'm sure. As for Kimi the man is like Fernando Alonso, you could say he could've been a 3 time or 4 time world champion. But he's a legend and he will forever be a legend.
Now in the What if...? Of the Kimi-Mclarenverse: What if Kimi stayed in Mclaren in 2007? Probably Hamilton/Rosberg battles. What if Kimi stayed alongside a Rookie Hamilton? I think Kimi would have won the title with that car but Lewis would've been close. And what if Kimi stayed alongside Pedro instead of Lewis? Probably Max/Checo style season in 2007 like nowadays.
Part of me wonders how de la Rosa would’ve done in the 2007 McLaren. Certainly more harmonious with Alonso, though nowhere near what Hamilton did. I recall listening to him on a podcast remembering seeing Hamilton go testing, and realising he would lose out on that seat within a few laps!
The stans will slam me for this but I think Raikkonen in the 2007 McLaren takes the championship without question That car did not have a SINGLE mechanical failure, it would have been a dream come true for him
2005 was the year I completely stopped watching F1. After seeing Ferrari's absolute dominance and completely understanding all the FIA's favouritism regarding penalties and allowing them to be the only team that could test their car all year round while the other teams had to travel 2 or 3 times a year for testing, I didn't want to know more about the sport. Good video once again.
To be fair the FIA essentially changed the rules for 2005 to specifically hinder Ferrari and it worked - so I guess you chose the wrong time to completely stop watching! I get what you're saying though.
Another Mobile Chicane banger, as always! When I see your uploads, I get excited and always carve some time out of my day to relax and just enjoy the fantastic content! Keep up the great work!
This was an era where it took a good driver, performance AND reliability. It was ironically, considering the turbo hybrid era, it was mostly Mercedes’ fault. It was so odd cause the car was so gorgeously prepared. Schumacher saw Kimi and Alonso testing in 2000 along with other rookies and predicted they were both future greats, but ranked Alonso even higher. Kimi’s unreliability didn’t effect his stock. EVERYONE was still calling him and Alonso the next greats. They were actually even a bit more hyped Kimi because when the McLaren was working they were so fast. BTW, god did I hate the 2005 tire rule. It ruined a lot of the enjoyment of seeing Alonso dominate that year.
This is great. Thank you for this. It was a miserable time for a fan. I only know how it should have been. You made my thoughts to a video. Thanks again.
Unbelievable driver in his prime.Probably the fastest from 2003 to 2007, but his inability to adapt to different circumstances (mainly the setup of his post McLaren cars, except Lotus) didn't help him to get the championships his talent deserved...That's why drivers like Hamilton and Alonso are a step ahead, they probably didn't have the same natural talent but their work ethic and dedication to the sport put them amongst the top of the top.Listen to Marc Priestley's story about Hamilton asking him every single detail about the car before he even raced in F1 (FP session Turkey 2006), while he also mentions that Kimi never went that deep in terms of analysis in his whole McLaren career, kind of tells the story.
2009 was still Kimi top year. Scored most points along with Lewis in 2nd half, 1st half statistics didn't tell whole story. 2008 was Kimi off year but still fast and set 10 fastest laps. Like Hamilton 2011, where he also lost to Button.
It's just become OBVIOUS that Mercedes were USING McLaren as a test bed for their engine development program that helped Lewis H to win all those deserved Championships... thank TOTO too... in any case, it's all wonderful and thanks for SHARING 😊
Here in 2024 still waiting for Hakkinen ending his sabbatical Awesome videos on this channel. I watch formula 1 since 1998 and love the history. from the legends to the outsiders like Prost, Jaguar, Arrows, Minardi. The history of this sport has so much to offer and you always learn more "Only" 21 victories and 1 championship don't show nearly the pace and talent of Kimi in the 2000s. He's one of the best who ever done it
Hakkinen was linked with comebacks with Williams, BAR, Toro Rosso and McLaren… it’s quite impressive he didn’t follow the comeback stories so many ex-champions did! Thanks for the support!
The coolest car, the coolest driver The world's fastest silent outsider In the lead flashing his speed Grandstands begin to freak Kimi's silver MP4-20 Once again smoking violently Never found El Dorado With an '05 Juan Pablo
@@sanfordcurtis8242 Yeah... And compared to both 2002 and 2004 it was absolutely nothing... I'm a Ferrari fan mister know-it-all, so calm the fuck down because it was just a joke
I am biased as Mika and Kimi fan but I always thought they had to earn their wins the hard way every time but then these luckboxes Schumacher and Alonso got many wins on the gold platter by others retirements and team orders or some random weather, fans on the track, cheating/rules bending, anything and they always seemed to benefit of these situations. Lucky lucky lucky. Not to say they didn't earn or had to work for their wins as well but Mika and Kimi never got lucky wins. At least that's how it felt. Kovalainen obviously got his sole win by pure luck but he is not Mika or Kimi.
Wait wait the fact he challenged Michael in '03 wiith one win mech fsilures and errors is an indictment on Michael. The fact he was two points away if anything shows how good he was.
Enjoy every video very much... What about talking about the rise and fall of Williams/Lotus... or even Alonso's time in Ferrari... There are many good topics to have for next episodes.
As fast the 2005 McLaren was, IT was fragile. If IT worked Kimi was able to dominate. Monaco that year was impressive but maybe His best Drive was in Japan. From 17 to 1. Thankfully he won a surprise and maybe lucky Championship in 07. And the Errors from him, everyone makes mistakes thats normal, make US human
For 03 you forgot to mention tyre gate when Ferrari made FIA change how they messured tire threads forcing Michelin to redo their tires quickly and suddendly ferrari won the last three races.
I feel his time at McLaren is just a genuine case of miss opportunities some of it very much down to how unreliable the McLaren cars were and others being the infamous 2003 MP4-18 debacle that literally had fighting the 2003 with one hand tied by fighting Michael Schumacher with a year old car. Rewatching His performances at McLaren was honestly in terms of just outright raw pace,race craft and consistency. His 2005 season easily one of the greatest performances by a non championship winning driver and it’s insane that he didn’t had a self inflicting race crash that whole year.
Well Ferrari signed him in a 5 year deal actually back in 2007, but main sponsor Santander approached Ferrari after Barcelona 2008 wanting Alonso to be #1 driver and Kimi out. 2014 everyone at Ferrari wanted Alonso to renew and Alonso's ego wanting to be the better driver of his era. Anyway Ocon won him in Alpine and Trulli too back in 2004 and with Vettel Ferrari promised Raikkonen to be #1,5 but they again fooled him. So yeah the greatest racer of his era was screwed by his luck and by politics and F1 is only for rich people nowadays and not the dream a carpenter's boy would achieve one day...
Kimi was cursed like hell, he had initially no chance in 2007 because suddenly mclaren DID solve their reliability problems and golden boy lewis was there to take the cake. Luckily Alonso would not just swallow the shit sandwich and was able to steal enough points from Lewis that Kimi did get at least the title of world champion to his deserving name. Now don't even get me started on how Ferrari politicking ruined Kimi's chances to renew his WDC at least once, thats a whole another story.
well Alonso did not deserve the 2005 title winning 3 races with Raikkonen dnf ! that guy was so lucky in 2005 ,glad he got a taste of losing in 2010, 2012 !!
@@19megamustaine85 Personally I think Alonso was one of the all time greats but got robbed by just having bad timing with red bull/newey dominance of early 2010s and then with Mercedes engines blowing everyone else out of the water. He did get wise after his stint with Mclaren and contractually demanded preferential treatment from Ferrari (and got it) but I would never deny Alono's own incredible skills. Both him and Kimi deserved at least 3-4 WDCs to their names if judged only by their driving abilities.
I find it quite ironic that McLaren's mess up's led to Kimi losing the world title in 2003 and '05, but allowed Kimi to win in '07. I have nothing against Hamilton and he drove 2007 brilliantly, but I'm so grateful their mishaps happened so we can get to call the iceman world champion.
It would’ve been truly disappointing if Raikkonen had left F1 without at least one title to his name.
Kimi would have won that title by Fuji had his car had equal reliability to the Mclarens
He deserved the 07 title anyway mate
Kimi had 2 DNFs in Spain and Nurburgring through no fault of his own. He also competed in Monza after suffering a horrible crash in FP3 which affected his neck badly.
Hamilton may have driven brilliantly for a rookie but he had an open goal for winning the title.
His two main rivals Kimi and Alonso joined new teams whilst having to adapt to Bridgestone tyres (both previously used Micheins only)
Lewis had been using the simulator since 2004 plus he'd also driven with Bridgestone tyres from his GP2 days. He was an extremely prepared rookie and lost the title in the end because he beached his car in the gravel entering the pit lane. A shocking mistake considering this was someone aiming for a title
I've never looked it up properly but what exactly did happen to Hamilton in that last race? It was something with the gearbox but it somehow fixed itself? very bizarre thing... coming into it I was sure he'd do enough
@@george._mav Yeah I agree. Kimi was the best driver that year overall. Alonso in Fuji and the Hungaroring and Hamilton in Shanghai made costly mistakes that cost them the title. It was truly an extrodinary season against 3 of the greatest of all time in very evenly matched machinery.
The Bridgestone tyres Hamilton used in GP2 had no grooves, whilst the ones in F1 did, so I think it's fair to say that Hamilton had to do an equal amount of adapting that Alonso and Raikkonen did with their tyres. Hamilton was indeed a very well prepared rookie, but he put up a worthy fight to two incredible drivers for someone so young and not used to being so famous. Thankfully, he did win in 2008, but Massa losing the title on the final corner just hurts so much, especially considering where both of their careers went afterwards.
I'm a simple man. Mobile Chicane uploads a video, I watch in silence
This man gets it 👌🏻
McLaren Raikkonen was actually a fucking beast. Arguably deserved 2005 as well as 2003
Being a Kimi fan in 2003 but especially in 2005 was some next level masochism. I remember when he won it in Brazil 2007 and how vindicated I felt.
Can relate
This is a criminally underrated channel. This guys depth of knowledge, dry wit and flawless delivery merits a substantial following.
At least I was here before he made it big!
Keep up the amazing work. When your videos drop I stop whatever I'm doing and give my full attention, they're that good!
Thank you so much - such kind words that I’m truly humbled by.
absolute fax
Kimi was the fastest, Clean racer I've ever seen in any category of motorsport. It's a cut throat sport which is brutal at the limit, but he always found a way to allow room even to his worst competition without fail. I believe this made him one of, if not the best wheel to wheel racers ever and his creativity in overtaking unmatched -how often did we hear "oh no-one ever has overtaken there before". How many onboards do we see of him mm apart of the next car without sliding or banging wheels or body work- so effortless, whereas with other drivers even so called greats they're banging wheels driving each other off - they're huffing and puffing like they're in MMA. With Kimi its an artform of speed. The thing most forgotten by people is that during those Mclaren years he pulled ridiculously quick qualifying and lap times often with 10-30kgmore fuel than his rivals. Had the cars only failed half as much as they did, he would easily have been a double wc by 2005 & most likely stayed at Mclaren where I'm certain he would have won a few more.
Absolutely correct. Prime Raikkonen had the talent to properly dominate F1 there is no doubt in my mind
The sheer amount of times he’s had to properly race his way though the field, start the back, and he would return with a podium if the car didn’t fail him. Probably had the most overtakes in that time, but was rarely involved in incidents
In fact, look at his mistakes across 4 years, you don’t really see him hitting other cars or making mindless moves. Monaco 2008 was his first penalty-worthy mistake in SEVEN years. That’s incredible when you think about it
His qualifying times on higher fuel were insane, Monza 2005 is a such a great example. No finer example than the teammate battle, we all know how fast and talented Montoya is and he crushed him
The GOAT. His driving technique makes him the best ever. The most extreme oversteer driver of all time. Hes also one of the most complete drivers ever to be seen
-fastest ever at his peak (top 3 best ever over 1 lap and the best ever in races)
-best wheel to wheel racer (extremely clean and fair)
-best driver ever at car setup
-elite defensive driver
-elite overtaker
-elite car control
-wet weather specialist
-world class at tyre management
-world class at race starts
-world class at car development
The only driver to win races with V10, V8 and V6 engines
Also the only driver to win a championship whilst joining a new team and having to adapt to new tyres that hed never driven before. A year that had huge regulation changes.
Great driver on his day but beaten by Massa, Alonso and Vettel. Lacked the adaptability of the true greats.
Well said! Add to that his mastery of Spa for so many years too.
Delusional much...🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
I wouldn't say he is the GOAT (personally I would give that to either Jim Clark or Fernando Alonso), but along with Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso, he was one of the defining drivers of his era. He is the most underrated one I think. A lot of people overlook the years before his championship. Whilst he did perform some outsanding races after the championship, such as Spa '09, Abu Dhabi '12, Australia and Singapore '13 and of course, his legendary win in Texas in '18, it was prior the championship win where we managed to see Kimi's full potential. Also, Senna also won with a V6, V8 and V10 (in addition to a V12).
@@MatOnMotorsNot much point in doing any comparisons beyond his Singapore 2013 injury. Even with surgeries, those always put a nasty asterisk on any career.
It does feel like Kimi deserved more in his time with McLaren since we got to see some of his best drives during this time but bad luck just seemed to follow him all the time while McLaren and Mercedes took too many gambles with their car which led to that shocking statistic of a 45% chance of Kimi's race ending early.
Regardless, when he was good, he was really good and was definitely a match for Alonso and Schumacher during this time so while I do remember Kimi for being such a fun personality and a meme in his later career, a drive like Japan 2005 is probably what Kimi deserves to be remembered as well as his championship in 2007.
I was fortunate enough to see Kimi get his only championship in 2007 since I do remember watching the Brazilian GP on TV and that proved to be one of my first memories of watching F1 too so Kimi is pretty important to me because of that.
I am looking forward to the rest of the current F1 season especially with McLaren and Williams making some big improvements with their cars with Albon probably being one of the most feel good stories of this season and I am excited to see what he can do in Belgium and Italy with that Williams.
Would’ve been so good to see a Schumacher-Alonso-Raikkonen duel for the title!
I’ve got all my fingers crossed for more good results for Williams. Albon is doing so well, and I’m hoping Sargeant continues to find his feet (although I wouldn’t be mad if Schumacher came in)
@@TheMobileChicane If those three had a title fight as close as 2021, that would be one of the best seasons in F1 history.
Albon is one of my favourites this season so I hope he continues to do well and we will see if Sargeant is able to continue developing.
Another absolutely brilliant video. Thank you! :) As a McLaren fan myself, who started watching the F1 in the middle of 2000 and saw all these years of Kimi at McLaren live, it was truly a painful time back in the day.^^
Glad you enjoyed it! I grew up a Williams fan, so painful times are all I’ve ever known!
@@TheMobileChicane I would love to see Williams improving in the next seasons. They totally deserving this. :)
Races for Raikkonen at McLaren where something went wrong…
2002
🇦🇺 Ran wide Lap 1, Mistake
🇲🇾 Engine
🇧🇷 Wheel rim
🇸🇲 Exhaust
🇪🇸 Rear Wing
🇦🇹 Engine
🇲🇨 Puncture
🇫🇷 Slid on Oil
🇬🇧 Engine
🇩🇪 Puncture/Crash
🇧🇪 Engine
🇮🇹 Engine
🇺🇸 Engine
2003
🇦🇺 Qualifying, Pit Lane Glitch
🇧🇷 Fisichella Red Flag
🇸🇲 Engine troubles not DNF
🇧🇦 Engine
🇪🇸 Crash
🇨🇦 Qualifying, Pit Lane Start
🇩🇪 Crash
2004
🇦🇺 Engine
🇲🇾 Engine
🇧🇭 Engine
🇸🇲 Engine (Qualifying)
🇲🇨 Pneumatics
🇧🇦 Engine
🇨🇦 Steering wheel, exit line penalty
🇺🇸 Air System Top Ups
🇫🇷 Qualifying Error
🇩🇪 Rear Wing
🇭🇺 Engine
🇮🇹 Engine
2005
🇦🇺 Stalled on Grid
🇲🇾 Puncture/Valve
🇸🇲 Engine
🇧🇦 Final lap Tyre failure/crash
🇺🇸 Race didn’t happen
🇫🇷 Grid Penalty
🇬🇧 Grid Penalty
🇩🇪 Hydraulics
🇮🇹 Grid Penalty/Puncture/Spin
🇯🇵 Down the Grid
2006
🇧🇭 Quali failure, starts last
🇲🇾 Crash
🇦🇺 Mistake overtaking Button
🇲🇨 Engine
🇬🇧 Small Airbox Fire
🇺🇸 Montoya
🇩🇪 Underfueled/Hydraulics
🇭🇺 Crash
🇹🇷 Crash
🇨🇳 Throttle
🇯🇵 Team bring wrong tyres
2005 San marino GP was not due to Engine but driveshaft.
When Kimi got those problems, where was his positions running?
2005 has most bad lucks for Raikkonen. With 8.
The MP420 wins the prize for the most appropriate alphanumerical name of a F1 car.
To quote Sim Dane - "All my cars have got that gas and they always be smokin' like a Rasta"
Over the years, Pat Symonds has repeatedly talked about Renault purposefully tuning down the power on their engines to satisfy for the 2005 rules. This at least helped to make their car more reliable. I wonder how 2005 looks if Mclaren had been a bit more conservative with their car. Might not have been as fast, but might have finished more races.
Another good point I should’ve covered; 2005 being the beginning of the era of stretching engine life. Given Mercedes’ struggles lasting just one race weekend, reliability across multiple was a big ask for them.
Again, that what-if over conservation circles back to falling behind, and being unable to do so, playing catch up.
@@TheMobileChicane By the way, I'm a big fan of your channel. Your historical F1 content is second to none, keep it up :) You always tackle historical topics in F1 that I'm always thinking about and the topic of the Mclaren's early to mid 2000's form is criminally not discussed about enough. And don't get me started on the Prost GP video :D
The problem is with the poor start McLaren had that year, they could not afford to be conservative.
Given they had a poor first 4 races they were not in a position to play conservative.
God-damn'it! As a Finn, and diehard Kimi-fan (I even have that symbol from Kimi's helmet tattooed on my arm), this video did hurt A LOT!
I’m sorry for the pain! It was equally painful to watch so much footage and research!
This will cheer you up.
I get to visit the paddock at silverstone on a test day as mclarens guest.
A friend of the family worked in marketing so we got to do a budget version of the coporate expereince tyoe thing.
Bought a shirt, had a go in a simulator etc.
But the chance arises to maybe get an autograph on my shirt.
So kimi starts walking from pit to paddock, so i make a beeline amd basically get to him first.
Little do i know he never signs anything and becaus of this , all the pro autograph hunters just swamp him.
Ive got two choices at this point, end up humping kimi as the press of anoraks waving stuff , like a good 10-12 of these guys are all pushing me into him.
Most if them are his size so im this six foot lump being pushed into him amd he aint happy.
So i forget my autograph , brace myself and and push back and instinctively spread my arms to stop them crowding kimi who looked like he wanted to stick one of the pens they are waving in their eyes.
He looked up at me slightly puzzled, but then uses the breather to plan his escape with his impromptu security usher, ive worked nightclubs , i know this game...
Weve had jonny vegas and edwin starr on stage before!
So he signed two autographs very quickly and shot into his tent,
A minute later his head pops out the side of the tent and says "hey you" signs my shirt amd says "thank you".
And hes back in the tent before i could even say thanks back.
Made my day.
A proper gent...
Those lousy F-1 tires of the era …. How ?
Raikkonen’s McLaren career is one of the most misleading and frankly unfair things in F1 history
Across 5 seasons his only mistakes (which he was seriously punished for) were mistakes on qualifying runs, bad starts, and lock ups?
He even had to run in the one shot qualifying era, he would have never started that far back in later seasons as he would have had multiple laps
I was getting into F1 in 2003, saw Kimi racing and instantly fell in love. Was heartbroken after Suzuka but sure that in 2004 he would deliver. Just to see his car blowing up like every other race
Excellent video, as a lifelong kimi fan i stumbled across this. Very interesting just how successful kimi could have been
I'd guess it was Newey pushing packaging (and cooling) to the limit which exacerbated Mercedes' engine issues through this period. One of his failures people rarely talk about (case in point: lots of footage of Ron and Norbert in the analysis but next to none of the man responsible for designing the car).
Newey simply refused to believe he could screw up and picked on Kimi as a soft target
It's jaw-dropping how much effort and research you put into this video. It seems to me you watched every single race during his McLaren days because you summarised them perfectly. You also approach the matter objectively and make sure to highlight the mistakes that Kimi did during his title challenges. Usually people blame McLaren and their reliability woes for their failure to win titles which still stands more than true but conveniently leave out Kimi's mishaps too. Argh.. it's such a huge what if. If things had gone right my favourite driver would be triple maybe even quadruple world champion.
Thank you! A lot of work goes into the research for these, not just watching races but reading books and articles from the time. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
You can't really compare his mistake with the crazy amount of DNFs McLaren had. McLaren let Kimi down massively. They had the fastest driver, and they wasted that chance. Kimi didn't need an MP4/20 to win or fight for the title, as 2003 proved.
@@ciaronsmith4995 Don't worry, that's what I meant mate. Just a little fortuna. One little mistake here or one less crash there. Kimi would be a multiple world champion IN SPITE of the massive failures of McLaren.
Love how the MP4-18 (if I'm not mistaken) has so many ideas that went on to the Red Bulls and the front wing resembles some of the ones the teams we have now.
It was just way ahead of its time. It shows that Adrian Newey is a genius. Maybe hes from the future & Has a hidden Delorean. xD
I think Kimi would have been a fantastic driver for the WEC races. Those cars, teams, and drivers are reliable and efficient.
Great job, author! I am really glad to open your channel.
Kimi started karting at 10 years old. He only competed in 23 races in Formula Ford and Formula Renault when he entered F1. He was relatively far less experience than others like Alonso and Button. 2003 saw Schumacher damage his bargeboards in 🇦🇺, collide with Trulli at 🇲🇾 and crash in 🇧🇷. Frankly, Kimi didn’t need to drive too aggressively because Schumi and Montoya were highly inconsistent despite the latter two having higher peaks (excluding Kimi's drives at 🇲🇾 and 🇪🇺). And MP4/17D was limited by hitting the end of its development cycle. Frankly, even though I was 12, I was astonished by his efforts in 03 when you consider he'd never won a race prior and he was a 3rd year driver.
2004 MP4/19 was a remodified MP4/18. A miserable season with 🇧🇪 his only highlight.
2005 was the ultimate robbery. Kimi was amazing and deserved to be world champion. He was the fastest and the best on the grid. He totally destroyed Montoya easily.
2006 was nearly 2004 all over again.
I have watched the Problems with Prost video at least 4 times, would love more content you are really good at what you do, especially with the old content i am very much a nostalgic person and the early 2000's were my childhood, hoping for more of this in the future :)
With how much of a shitbox the MP4-18 was, development on that car should have been canned earlier so more resources could be pooled into the 17D. Granted; the performance ceiling of the 17D might've been relatively low but it had the opportunity to still be a title contender thanks to the weather conditions favouring McLaren's Michelins and the F2003-GA being particularly heavy on its front tyres, compounding the weaknesses of the Bridgestones in the European leg of the season.
and here we are... the end of 2023 and Kimi is still the latest Ferrari champion! It's been 16 years since they had a champion! His bad luck was indeed like a man smashing a mirror with a black cat whilst walking under a ladder... I'm still a fan of Kimi (even tho he's not in F1 anymore) and I have been a fan of him since 2003
Can't tell you how exciting it is to see a fresh, chunky video essay uploaded to your channel ready to be enjoyed. Thank you for putting so much effort into your content!!
And thank you, for watching!
alsways happy when a video of yours shows in my subscribe- tab😍
Thank you! Hope you enjoyed.
I am so grateful I found your channel, thank you.
Brilliant video ! The end of the 2007 Brazilian GP was one of the best moments of my childhood
I was a huge Hamilton fanboy in the early stages of his career, so I’ve only recently began to appreciate Brazil 2007 (and indeed the end part of ‘07) for the turnaround of Ferrari and Raikkonen (and implosion of McLaren)
Well, I guess I'm early to this. Anyhow, I'm a huge fan of your channel as all of your vids are really well written, Your channel is one of those I really reccomended to my friends who watch Formula 1. So yea. Your vid made my day. Thanks!!!!!
Thank you so much!
Raikkonen at Mclaren is the fastest driver I’ve ever seen.
you know you did a great job at analyzing kimi when ciaron smith lurking in the comments
@kirisaki.777 you sure about that?
Driver61 mentioned kimi in a recent upload and he didn't exactly do a great job by putting him in the understeer camp 💀
Agreed. I think if we judged Raikkonen purely on his McLaren era, i think we’d be ranking him in the top 5/10 drivers of all time. Some of those qualifying performances were brilliant.
@TheMobileChicane indeed but his race pace was even more impressive
At his peak I would still rank him a tad below Senna and Hakkinen in terms of quali speed.
However in the races - he's the fastest ever for me
Thank you for the video, many memories brought back. This was the era for me, screaming V10s, slick West McLaren livery and Kimi were what'd brought me to the sport, and I'm a bit sad F1 will never be like that again.
Edit: One big "what could have been" was also Kimi's near signing of the contract with McLaren for 2010. There's generally a lack of information and it seems that Kimi wanted more than McLaren were inclined to pay, but it'd be interesting to know more about the background. Kimi with Hamilton in 2010 - 2012 era, that could have been quite a sight.
Thank you!
I’d forgotten that; before Button had signed, there was a lot of chat that maybe Kimi could come back. I think he was also linked to a return there much later on - quite possibly when Alonso left for the second time
I gasped when I saw the title. I haven’t watched yet and I’m VERY excited for this lol
It took the greatest dynasty in all of motorsports, the greatest engineer F1 has ever had, the most successful team principal in history, the most legendary driver pairing and greatest single driver in F1 history, a strategy team who played the rulebook like a fiddle, essentially made-to-order tires specifically tailored to their car, and a technicality in the rules, to beat prime-Räikkönen in the car from the prior season that broke down every second race because Adrian Newey somehow kept forgetting how temperature works. It took all of this to beat prime-Räikkönen by just two points. If he had somehow dragged that disfunctional washing machine to win the WDC, it would have been probably the greatest season performance in motorsports, arguably sports as a whole.
Unfortunately he didn't. Even tho the main problem was the team surrounding him, greatness is defined by overcoming the shortcomings you have to deal with, and he made mistakes that cost him this achievement. But the 2007 WDC was beyond deserved, especially since he dragged Ferrari who were kicking and screaming to a WDC past a McLaren Team that had much better pace.
And 2004 was never an option for any team to win. Formula Ferrari just let Formula 1 drive during their race.
I'm a Schumacher & Ferrari fan btw.
It's always a joy seeing one of your uploads go live. I've said it before, but your ability to tell thoughtful stories makes for a gripping watch even when I already know just about everything about that era. Keep at it, man.
I miss Kimi. I said it in a reply to another comment as well, but his wheel to wheel skills made battles involving him a joy to watch. I thought I'd disagree more with your assessment of 2003, but you bring a level of nuance and levelheadedness to the table that I'm honestly not used to from the F1 community, especially these days. All the more reason to appreciate your videos.
Thank you so much! Very kind words.
I feel like when I was a child, & Kimi was my favourite driver, he led every Race in Verstappenesque dominance only to hve his engine blow up eventually. With modern cars that hardly ever break down, Kimi would have 4 titles. McLareb Kimi was one of the fastest drivers ever. That man was easily better than Prime Vettel or Prost, who both have multiple titles.
Kimi definitely deserved 2003 and 2005. In 03 he was the most consistent driver in a lesser car to the Ferrari and Williams apart from the first three races. He had a few errors here and there but none of the high profile mistakes ie Montoya and Schumacher both crashing out at interlagos and having their share of mistakes throughout the year.
He was playing defence all year long in the 3rd fastest car.
05 without a doubt should of been his if not for reliability.
2007 however he definitely didn’t deserve as both Mclarens out drove him that year and he was a shadow of his McLaren self once he moved over to Ferrari. He was lucky that year that the Mclarens kept taking points off each other.
It confuses me why the popular f1 channels are the ones that rank liveries and drivers every race to fill an upload quote while proper channels like these run under the radar. F1’s rich history for me has always been a beacon of light in times of such monotony.
Kimi, the legend, the beast, the ice man! The last of the old guard. F1 hasn’t been the same since he retired.
This video makes you understand how much reliability mattered back then even above having the outright fastest car. Schumacher and Ferrari had reliability as a top priority in their first years together and hearing that Kimi had that much trouble makes you wonder how much more would he have achieved in a Ferrari between 2003-06
Wow really great video man, always a fan of longform F1 content. Giving context to every retirement like that really put it in perspective for a younger F1 fan like me how absolutely trashed his champion hopes were, over and over. I was a toddler when he was driving the McLaren, but now I am the age he was back then.
Thank you! Likewise, I didn’t start watching F1 until 2004, so picking apart these seasons in more detail was really interesting.
Honestly listening to the problems Raikkonen ran into in his time at McLaren is nothing short of ridiculous
What is that, like 35 of them in 5 seasons? Even stuff that wasn’t DNFs, the grid penalties, the stalls, the random glitches, the punctures
Hammer any driver, even Schumacher, with that much misfortune and they’d never win a title
His motivation was never the issue.
He barely made any mistakes either.
It was purely the teams fault - he was the victim of incompetence despite being F1s fastest driver
I knew where I found a Kimi Raikkonen video, I'd find a Ciaran Smith comment :D
@ciaronsmith4995.. and when he finally left McLaren they forgot to give him the steering wheel, the drink, the gloves etcetera! 🤦🏻♀️
Honestly the least amount of mistakes you’ll ever see from someone that had to drive a volatile car in an unstable era and constantly in the midfield and at the back, racing his forward
But in 2005 he not only had the best car, but he also made more mistakes than fernando, australia, europe, italy, alonso only had one error all season in canada, so give fernando some credit
Nonsense, Kimi had to start 10 places back in Monza, and Alonso made countless mistakes in Hungary, Canada, Nurburgring and lost a win at Silverstone. Enough. Raikkonen was F1's fastest drivers.@@zinddy
I remember 2003 as the season developed, news were coming in about the MP4-18. The car looked different, looked fast... I had such high hopes. Then the car didn't make it to the races and somehow Kimi battled Schumi in that outdated car. Let's say 2003 was a long shot.
2004... started like McLaren didn't learn anything from the MP4-18...I was so disappointed.
2005 - THANK YOU for summarizing the points table. I didn't take the time to do the math, but man... 12 wins and 170+ points. That was the real picture of that year. At that time I was looking into every detail of the sport. So I was very happy and somehow vindicated when Kimi won "Drive of the year - Monaco win" and "Driver of the year". This for the 2nd placed driver. Quite a recognition of the reality.
The rest is just... Kimi was never the same after Spain 2008. Maybe due to Ferrari car changes that year, but certainly due to regulation changes starting with 2009. And the most underrated change through the years were the tires. After Michelin, Kimi just lost that speed that he had during qualifications.
In 2009 Kimi outqualified Massa and scored the most points along with Lewis in 2nd half. Ferrari engineers are baffled how he can put the car higher than expected.
Kimi is my favourite driver of all time and those McLaren years were nothing but heartbreak. I went into every race thinking 'Which lap will his McLaren fail him this time'
Another informative and great video.
I feel like most Driver/Team pairing you mentioned that could get covered just sort of follow the same path of driver underperformed or was unhappy so the team sacked them or the driver left.
I feel Jean Alesi's Ferrari woes and in general how he wound up from the next Prost to a French Trulli would be interesting to see covered . Also Ferrari politics are always fun to listen too and I am kind of surprised there's not a single video about at least 1 Ferrari bollocking story. I guess it's low hanging fruit lmao.
Also rather than Irvine, I think it would be more interesting to cover Jaguar as a team itself, from them buying the team from Stewart to them selling it to Red Bull.
Keep up the good work. You're probably the best F1 Channel on youtube personally.
I’ve made a video in every DNF he had at Mclaren during the race and in quali/FP.
It’s tragic beyond words. This man was robbed of 2 titles in 2003 and 2005 and it’s depressing to upload the video.
A mistake in qualifying and speeding in the pit lane in Australia, a mistake letting through Fisi in Brazil, a mistake in qualifying and crash at the start in Spain, a mistake in qualifying in Canada, a mistake at Silverstone letting through Juan, a nowhere race at Monza in 2003 don’t count?
He didn’t make a mistake in Australia, that was a pit lane speed limiter glitch.
Brazil was the craziest race ever
Canada was inconsequential, he got a puncture in the race
Silverstone he outperformed the car, it shouldn’t have even been on the podium.
He dragged a 1 year old car, made far less mistakes than Juan or Michael that season who had far superior equipment.
He is simply sensational. Without the failure at Nurburgring he easily wins 2003. Mclaren never launched their real car so he had to drive on the limit like a maniac every lap.
Monza 2003 was amazing….his car was nowhere compared to Ferrari or Williams
You don’t know anything about F1
@deadmarch101 OK fair I'll concede the spain quali lap, he messed up there and probably wouldn't have gone into the back of a driver on lap 1 - although he couldn't actually do anything to avoid pizzonia at the time. He missed out on perhaps a few pts that weekend
Other than that you literally just cherry picked all his other bad moments with no context behind it. You even got your facts wrong asw plus saying he was nowhere in monza shows a high level of ignorance and most likely a lack of knowledge about f1
Kimi Raikkonen is arguably the purest driver in modern era of F1 in terms of persona and talent
Great video, I got into f1 from the usa in 03 / 04 and love seeing videos of f1 during that time..f1 had a different feel then....great memories...crazy how time flies
I know it's something you just brushed in the video, but I really do agree with your estimation that the 2005 US GP pretty much stopped any forward momentum of F1 in the US for a decade plus. It also kind of lays into my idea that even *if* both parties were keen to host it again, neither F1 nor Indianapolis want to have another 2005 hanging above their heads considering how different Indy is to the typical F1 tire in comparison to most F1 circuits, and I doubt Pirelli wants to put in the time and development into making it right for Indy, so both F1 and Indianapolis just decide to avoid one another.
Then again, it ultimately doesn't matter - F1 got their effective American crown jewel in COTA, and Indy, even during the late years of the split in Tony George's reign, especially now under Penske, already has enough events alongside the Indy 500 to not necessarily need an F1 date, and risk destroying even more of what makes the Indy 500, and the Brickyard in general, the mystical temple it is.
Wake up babe new Mobile Chicane video dropped
The amount of Perkeles my dad and I would shout at the TV for Kimi's entire McLaren run, that smoke trail kept up with him better than DC ever did. The endless litany of consistent failures in car development solidified Ron Dennis as a past-his-prime class-A clown in my young eyes.
Another masterpiece of a video, this is madness, thank you for all the hard work you put into your videos
Thank you so much!
phenomenal video as usual. something i will come back to watch over and over again. thank you. every single video you make is a blessing that i am grateful for. i am very much looking forward to your podcast series that is in the concept phase. if i wasn’t a broke college student, i’d be sending you buckets of money for content creation. thank you so much. please keep up the good work!!!
i would like to note that i am severely hung over at the moment but your videos matter so much to me that i am driven to watch them on release.
Thanks so much! This is such a great comment to be reading after the many struggles I had with this video.
@@TheMobileChicane Thank you for making easily the best F1 content on TH-cam.
Great video, appreciate the work you obviously put in.
Just a critique: i think you're video is a little slow paced
Keep up the good work!
The MP4-20 is the most beautiful F1 of history
Your dedication to each and every video you create is astonishing, it feels like im watching a big production documentary. your work deserves so much more recognition!!
Thank you!
Thank you for shining light on the "xy should have been world champion in nn". There is always more to a story.
Love this video. Imo, I think Raikonnen was actually one of the best drivers of his time. I think this is a fair analysis of it all, but even so, when you just sit and study his on boards, he was just incredible. Just completely natural. He reminds of a guy I grew up with. Just completely normal. Some of these guys spend every waking hour to be good, eg Schumacher, Prost, etc. But Kimi was just the best from day one.
I truly believe that if luck went his way and he got those championships, and if he was a bit more media friendly to the snow flakes of today, he’d seriously be considered as number one or two all time F1 driver, no doubt in my mind.
Mate if he was given a reliably fast car or dare I say a DOMINANT car like some more fortunate champions, man literally would have racked up 5 or 6 titles
Man was one of the top 3 on the grid every season from 2003-2009
I cried when my favourite Raikkonen lost in 2003 and what it seemed to be his downfall in 2004. I was a huge Raikkonen supporter, but I also liked Schumacher. It was the best years to be introduced to F1. But I wish Raikkonen won 2003,
Another masterpiece. This channel reminds me of Alain De Cadenet's shows on the history of F1. Every race Sunday should start with an episode from Mobile Chicane.
Not sure I could churn out content that quickly, but if F1 wants to pay me, I’m sure I could give it a go 😉
@@TheMobileChicane they would if they knew what was good for them.
Banning beryllium alloys caused Mercedes all sorts of problems with power and reliability. How on earth they then produced the most reliable engine on the grid once Kimi departed will wind me up forever
This exactly the banning basically hamstrung McLaren for the rest of the V10s era from 2001 when teams were making more power than ever IIRC Mercedes ended up back at 1998/99 power levels and had to work their way back up compromising reliability
The next time they finally got it sorted was 2007 after starting 2006 with a weak engine as well
Thank you for the video, amazing work and the best in-detail-Kimi-McLaren video I have seen. Massive contribution for the whole F1 culture and community.
I had never realized 2006 was also such a year of missed opportunities. I remember 2003 and 2005 much more clearly even though I was already 10 years old in 2006 and a huge Kimi fan. Maybe it is because it was "over" already in the beginning of the season, so additional miseries did not feel as bad in comparison and they are not living in my head so vividly.
Likewise, 03 and 05 are the obvious ones that stick out for a lot of people, 06 really slips under the radar since, like you said, it was seen as the beginning of the end for Raikkonen’s time at McLaren
I remember that last lap overtake on Fisi at Suzuka ‘05 like it happened yesterday…
Amazing work and vidéo, thank you !
The time has come, Mobile Chicane talking about the Iceman and the Papaya 💎. Nice.
2 powerhouses, both with lots of talent. We need to get MC more views 😅
@@JaredAlwaysWatches If we talk about talent, Mobile deserves a million subs now and millions of views, time will reward him, I'm sure. As for Kimi the man is like Fernando Alonso, you could say he could've been a 3 time or 4 time world champion. But he's a legend and he will forever be a legend.
Now in the What if...? Of the Kimi-Mclarenverse:
What if Kimi stayed in Mclaren in 2007? Probably Hamilton/Rosberg battles.
What if Kimi stayed alongside a Rookie Hamilton? I think Kimi would have won the title with that car but Lewis would've been close.
And what if Kimi stayed alongside Pedro instead of Lewis? Probably Max/Checo style season in 2007 like nowadays.
Part of me wonders how de la Rosa would’ve done in the 2007 McLaren. Certainly more harmonious with Alonso, though nowhere near what Hamilton did. I recall listening to him on a podcast remembering seeing Hamilton go testing, and realising he would lose out on that seat within a few laps!
The stans will slam me for this but I think Raikkonen in the 2007 McLaren takes the championship without question
That car did not have a SINGLE mechanical failure, it would have been a dream come true for him
@@TheMobileChicane
Alonso wins 2007 with De La Rosa as his teammate. He’d probably win 2008 as well
@@TheMobileChicane2008 Hamilton vs Kovalainen.
2005 was the year I completely stopped watching F1. After seeing Ferrari's absolute dominance and completely understanding all the FIA's favouritism regarding penalties and allowing them to be the only team that could test their car all year round while the other teams had to travel 2 or 3 times a year for testing, I didn't want to know more about the sport. Good video once again.
To be fair the FIA essentially changed the rules for 2005 to specifically hinder Ferrari and it worked - so I guess you chose the wrong time to completely stop watching! I get what you're saying though.
Another Mobile Chicane banger, as always! When I see your uploads, I get excited and always carve some time out of my day to relax and just enjoy the fantastic content! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much! Appreciate it.
do you think you can do one with Kimi at ferrari especially in 2008? will be quite an interesting watch
It’s added to the list!
@@TheMobileChicane let’s go! cant wait for more Kimi videos even though it’ll make me sad cuz of how unlucky he is 😓
Goated uploads always
This was an era where it took a good driver, performance AND reliability. It was ironically, considering the turbo hybrid era, it was mostly Mercedes’ fault. It was so odd cause the car was so gorgeously prepared. Schumacher saw Kimi and Alonso testing in 2000 along with other rookies and predicted they were both future greats, but ranked Alonso even higher. Kimi’s unreliability didn’t effect his stock. EVERYONE was still calling him and Alonso the next greats. They were actually even a bit more hyped Kimi because when the McLaren was working they were so fast.
BTW, god did I hate the 2005 tire rule. It ruined a lot of the enjoyment of seeing Alonso dominate that year.
This is great. Thank you for this. It was a miserable time for a fan. I only know how it should have been. You made my thoughts to a video. Thanks again.
Unbelievable driver in his prime.Probably the fastest from 2003 to 2007, but his inability to adapt to different circumstances (mainly the setup of his post McLaren cars, except Lotus) didn't help him to get the championships his talent deserved...That's why drivers like Hamilton and Alonso are a step ahead, they probably didn't have the same natural talent but their work ethic and dedication to the sport put them amongst the top of the top.Listen to Marc Priestley's story about Hamilton asking him every single detail about the car before he even raced in F1 (FP session Turkey 2006), while he also mentions that Kimi never went that deep in terms of analysis in his whole McLaren career, kind of tells the story.
2009 was still Kimi top year. Scored most points along with Lewis in 2nd half, 1st half statistics didn't tell whole story.
2008 was Kimi off year but still fast and set 10 fastest laps. Like Hamilton 2011, where he also lost to Button.
It's just become OBVIOUS that Mercedes were USING McLaren as a test bed for their engine development program that helped Lewis H to win all those deserved Championships... thank TOTO too... in any case, it's all wonderful and thanks for SHARING 😊
Here in 2024 still waiting for Hakkinen ending his sabbatical
Awesome videos on this channel. I watch formula 1 since 1998 and love the history. from the legends to the outsiders like Prost, Jaguar, Arrows, Minardi. The history of this sport has so much to offer and you always learn more
"Only" 21 victories and 1 championship don't show nearly the pace and talent of Kimi in the 2000s. He's one of the best who ever done it
Hakkinen was linked with comebacks with Williams, BAR, Toro Rosso and McLaren… it’s quite impressive he didn’t follow the comeback stories so many ex-champions did!
Thanks for the support!
Hakkinen in 2001 was like Raikkonen 2014. Past their prime performing much worse but Mika retired while Kimi continued.
Remember watching these yrs kimi was so fast but that car broke every time they tried to finish a race
Same. I watched these races live as a McLaren fan and it was a hard time.
Kimi
best driver of the tyre war era
can't change my mind
The coolest car, the coolest driver
The world's fastest silent outsider
In the lead flashing his speed
Grandstands begin to freak
Kimi's silver MP4-20
Once again smoking violently
Never found El Dorado
With an '05 Juan Pablo
Another informative masterpiece!
Thank you! Cheers!
First time I’m early to a mobile chicane video 🔥🔥🔥
I was a Kimi fan during these years. It was so painful to watch.
Great documentary- thanks so much 🙏🏻
Excellent work as always mate. Keep it up
Thanks, will do!
I don't know any driver that has been the champion while being so clean driver, always so respectful while racing.
Uff, what a painful trip to memory lane. Awesome video. Here, take a sub and thumbs up!
Sorry for the pain, but thank you for the sub!
I think we can all agree that the 2003 Championship was so close just because of Ferrari ferrarying before it was "cool"😂
Ferrari won 50% of the races that season and still wrapped up both titles that season, but do go off, child
@@sanfordcurtis8242 Yeah... And compared to both 2002 and 2004 it was absolutely nothing... I'm a Ferrari fan mister know-it-all, so calm the fuck down because it was just a joke
If you wanna win, get the Finn!
Mika Hakkinen
November 2001
I am biased as Mika and Kimi fan but I always thought they had to earn their wins the hard way every time but then these luckboxes Schumacher and Alonso got many wins on the gold platter by others retirements and team orders or some random weather, fans on the track, cheating/rules bending, anything and they always seemed to benefit of these situations. Lucky lucky lucky.
Not to say they didn't earn or had to work for their wins as well but Mika and Kimi never got lucky wins. At least that's how it felt.
Kovalainen obviously got his sole win by pure luck but he is not Mika or Kimi.
Wait wait the fact he challenged Michael in '03 wiith one win mech fsilures and errors is an indictment on Michael. The fact he was two points away if anything shows how good he was.
Enjoy every video very much...
What about talking about the rise and fall of Williams/Lotus...
or even Alonso's time in Ferrari...
There are many good topics to have for next episodes.
Thank you! As a Williams fan it would be interesting to go over their drop off, and see if there’s maybe a way back for them!
As fast the 2005 McLaren was, IT was fragile. If IT worked Kimi was able to dominate. Monaco that year was impressive but maybe His best Drive was in Japan. From 17 to 1.
Thankfully he won a surprise and maybe lucky Championship in 07.
And the Errors from him, everyone makes mistakes thats normal, make US human
For 03 you forgot to mention tyre gate when Ferrari made FIA change how they messured tire threads forcing Michelin to redo their tires quickly and suddendly ferrari won the last three races.
I feel his time at McLaren is just a genuine case of miss opportunities some of it very much down to how unreliable the McLaren cars were and others being the infamous 2003 MP4-18 debacle that literally had fighting the 2003 with one hand tied by fighting Michael Schumacher with a year old car. Rewatching His performances at McLaren was honestly in terms of just outright raw pace,race craft and consistency. His 2005 season easily one of the greatest performances by a non championship winning driver and it’s insane that he didn’t had a self inflicting race crash that whole year.
Well Ferrari signed him in a 5 year deal actually back in 2007, but main sponsor Santander approached Ferrari after Barcelona 2008 wanting Alonso to be #1 driver and Kimi out. 2014 everyone at Ferrari wanted Alonso to renew and Alonso's ego wanting to be the better driver of his era. Anyway Ocon won him in Alpine and Trulli too back in 2004 and with Vettel Ferrari promised Raikkonen to be #1,5 but they again fooled him. So yeah the greatest racer of his era was screwed by his luck and by politics and F1 is only for rich people nowadays and not the dream a carpenter's boy would achieve one day...
I love the Simpsons hints. Nearly as much as I love the video and this channel ❤
The trick is to tell your viewers long F1 stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time they were building a racetrack in Shelbyville..
Pleaee start doing old wrc seasons... 1990-2010
Charles Leclerc and the Scuderia Ferrari Misery, Go
Mobile Chicane: Adam Curtis of the F1 world, great video!!
Thank you!
Kimi was cursed like hell, he had initially no chance in 2007 because suddenly mclaren DID solve their reliability problems and golden boy lewis was there to take the cake.
Luckily Alonso would not just swallow the shit sandwich and was able to steal enough points from Lewis that Kimi did get at least the title of world champion to his deserving name.
Now don't even get me started on how Ferrari politicking ruined Kimi's chances to renew his WDC at least once, thats a whole another story.
well Alonso did not deserve the 2005 title winning 3 races with Raikkonen dnf ! that guy was so lucky in 2005 ,glad he got a taste of losing in 2010, 2012 !!
@@19megamustaine85 Personally I think Alonso was one of the all time greats but got robbed by just having bad timing with red bull/newey dominance of early 2010s and then with Mercedes engines blowing everyone else out of the water.
He did get wise after his stint with Mclaren and contractually demanded preferential treatment from Ferrari (and got it) but I would never deny Alono's own incredible skills. Both him and Kimi deserved at least 3-4 WDCs to their names if judged only by their driving abilities.
McLaren solved it by cheating... spygate...